Apple Ceases Development of 'AirPort' Wireless Routers as Engineers Reassigned to Other Products - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Ceases Development of 'AirPort' Wireless Routers as Engineers Reassigned to Other Products

by

Apple has dissolved its division which develops wireless routers and is now sending engineers who worked on the AirPort lineup into other product teams, including one currently working on Apple TV. The news comes from a report by Bloomberg, who said Apple has been slowly shutting down the division over the past year and made the decision "to try to sharpen the company’s focus on consumer products that generate the bulk of its revenue."

airport_roundup
Currently, Apple sells three wireless routers, including the AirPort Express ($99), AirPort Extreme ($199), and AirPort Time Capsule ($299), but none of the devices have seen a refresh since 2013. A temporary stock shortage earlier in the year gave hope that a refresh of the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule was coming during WWDC, but Apple never mentioned the products during its keynote. The trio of wireless routers still remain available for purchase for the time being.

Exiting the router business could make Apple’s product ecosystem less sticky. Some features of the AirPort routers, including wireless music playback, require an Apple device like an iPhone or Mac computer. If the company no longer sells wireless routers, some may have a reason to use other phones and PCs.

The central reason for abandoning the AirPort line appears to focus mainly on its small revenue gains in comparison to the company's more lucrative products, like the iPhone. Apple includes its routers in the "other products" category of its annual financial results, a section which generated $11.1 billion in fiscal 2016, or about 5 percent of the company's total sales.

Tags: AirPort Extreme, AirPort Time Capsule, Bloomberg
Related Forum: Networking

Popular Stories

Apple Foldable Thumb

'iPhone Ultra' Will Solve Two Key Problems

Saturday April 11, 2026 8:40 am PDT by
Apple reportedly plans to unveil a foldable iPhone in September, and the device will supposedly solve two problems with foldable smartphones. In case you missed it, a leaker on Chinese social media platform Weibo recently claimed that the foldable iPhone will be named "iPhone Ultra." According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the device will have improved screen quality and overall durability...
Read Full Article • 205 comments
wwdc 2026 horizontal

WWDC 2026 Graphic Teases Major iOS 27 Feature

Sunday April 19, 2026 3:02 pm PDT by
Apple's WWDC 2026 graphic provides "a glimpse of the revamped Siri interface coming in iOS 27," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said iOS 27 will include a new Siri interface in the Dynamic Island. When you trigger Siri, he said the Dynamic Island will show a "Search or Ask" prompt, and this will apparently be accompanied by a "glowing cursor"...
Read Full Article • 62 comments
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Apple Testing Two New iOS 27 Home Screen Customization Options

Sunday April 19, 2026 3:49 pm PDT by
Apple is planning to add "Undo" and "Redo" options to the iPhone's Home Screen customization menu on iOS 27, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. These two options will make it easier to reverse or redo your Home Screen changes. "Right now, when you long-press on the home screen, you get a bubble in the top left corner with four options: Add Widget, Customize, Edit Wallpaper and Edit...
Read Full Article • 67 comments

Top Rated Comments

ParanoidDroid Avatar
ParanoidDroid
124 months ago
What's going on? Is Apple deliberately trying to piss off customers? The convenient MagSafe is gone, SD card slot gone, headphone jack gone, optical SPDIF on 4th Apple TV gone.

Next things to kill: OTA Time Capsule backups and AirPlay... oh c'mon Apple. My sympathy is shrinking!

The reason why many loyal customers like(d) Apple was the huge convenience factor and reliability within a smart ecosystem.

Supplementary products such as AirPort Time Capsule, the 3rd gen Apple TV, and the Apple Thunderbolt Display surely didn't generate a lot of revenue, but completed the unique Apple experience at home and in the office. If you didn't want to fiddle around with 3rd party support and drivers (like in the PC world), you just bought everything from Apple, and you knew that everything would work smoothly – because it was Apple.

But now things are changing, the convenience factor has been significantly disturbed with the latest #donglelife backlash and ugly LG monitors on top of that. Not to mention the never-the-same Space Gray (gone Jet Black) color-rama-drama.

I beginn to miss a central theme – a leitmotif – across the latest Apple products. The harmony is falling apart. While e.g. Microsoft is currently hard working on just that: unification. Be careful Apple... Nokia was once big too! Don't let the bean counters kill the company we used to love.
Score: 322 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jtrenthacker Avatar
jtrenthacker
124 months ago
So, in a couple more years, Apple will be nothing more than tablets and phones? Timmy needs to hit the road.
Score: 259 Votes (Like | Disagree)
M
MNJohn
124 months ago
Resources probably pulled to shore up watch band development.
Score: 189 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sputnikv Avatar
sputnikv
124 months ago
i thought wireless was the future
Score: 145 Votes (Like | Disagree)
S
Sound214
124 months ago
Wow, this stinks! I've dealt with plenty of router alternatives, and AirPort is by far more superior. And you don't have to hide them, since they're beautiful. ****.
Score: 141 Votes (Like | Disagree)
E
ehfz
124 months ago
Part of what makes Apple appealing to consumers is the "it just works" philosophy, and part of what makes "it just works" work is the broad ecosystem of Apple products that support the cash cows, including the Airport lineup.
Score: 99 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments